Although Christ is so mysterious and unlimited, He is very real and dear. By calling on His name, we can experience Him and be saved by Him in everything in our daily life. The more we call on His name, the more refreshed we feel. This is why we like to call on His name, just as the hymn writer who wrote that we say the sacred name of Jesus a thousand times a day. But again, some dissenting ones condemn this kind of calling. They accuse us of being the callers, saying that this is wrong and is not proper worship. They think that worship is to go to a chapel or cathedral, first to recite some creeds, then to listen to some choirs singing, and then to listen to a sermon by a pastor. Everything should be done according to a program. At the end, the pastor would stretch out his hand to give a benediction, and with the congregation responding with an “amen,” the meeting would end, and everybody would go home. Actually, they all come to this kind of meeting empty and leave empty. They receive nothing, and there is no change in their living. This is religion. This is not Christ. We do not need religion. What we need is Christ. The simple way to get Christ is just by calling on His name.
Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This is not just salvation from perdition, but salvation from our temper and disposition as well. To call on the name of the Lord is not a small thing. Many Christians have discovered from their experience that when they are tempted and bothered in their environment and become oppressed and depressed, all they need to do is call on the name of the Lord. Then they will be brought into true fellowship with the Lord and will be able to enjoy the overcoming life of Christ. In this way they will be delivered from their self, sins, the world, the Devil, and all other entanglements, and they will experience Christ as their inward satisfaction and joy.
We have seen the Christ in the Gospels. We have also seen the Christ in Acts. Now we come to the Christ in the Epistles. Item number one of the outline says that Christ, the last Adam, passed through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. This is the most important point of the Epistles. The last Adam, which is the Lord Jesus, has passed through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the Holy Spirit, because in the whole universe only the Holy Spirit can give life, and this life-giving Spirit is just Christ. Hence, the Christ in the Epistles is the last Adam becoming the life-giving Spirit. This is the subject of the Epistles. The Christ spoken of in the twenty-one Epistles is the life-giving Spirit. I have selected eight out of these twenty-one Epistles. They are Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 John, and Hebrews. Let us now take a look at the Christ spoken of in these eight Epistles.
Item number two says that Christ, the life-giving Spirit, is the Spirit of life. In Romans 8:2 we have the Spirit of life. Then in verse 9 we see that this Spirit of life is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, who is also Christ Himself. This pneumatic Christ first enters into the believers’ spirit to make their spirit life (Rom. 8:9-10). He then spreads from their spirit to their mind, making their minds life also, and finally gives life to their mortal body, so that their whole being—spirit, soul, and body—is saturated by Him as this Spirit of life to be sanctified and conformed to the image of Him as the firstborn Son of God, to become the many sons of God, being His living members to build up His Body to be His corporate expression.
The book of Romans deals with this Spirit of life, who is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, even Christ Himself, and the firstborn Son of God. Christ is the Spirit. When He enters into our spirit, He makes our spirit life. Then He spreads from our spirit to the most important part of our soul, which is the mind, that our mind would also have life. He then spreads further outward to dispense His life to our mortal body, that our body would also have life. As a result, we are sanctified and are conformed to His image. In this way we become the many sons of God and are made His members to be built up to be the Body of Christ which is His corporate expression. This is the Christ in the book of Romans.
Item number three says that after Christ’s ascension, He baptized all His believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, in Him as the all-inclusive Spirit into one Body. Once at Pentecost and once at the house of Cornelius, God baptized both the Jewish and the Gentile believers into one Body.
We were baptized into the Body of Christ even before we were born. This is also very difficult to understand, but we accept this for the Bible tells us so. This is similar to Revelation 13:8 which says that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Humanly speaking, the Lord was killed on the cross about one thousand nine hundred years ago; but in God’s eyes, He has been slain from the foundation of the world. In the same principle, at Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius, the Lord Jesus as the Head of the church baptized all His believers throughout the generations, both the Jews and the Gentiles, into one Body in this Spirit.
They are also made to drink of this one Spirit. Today we do not have to seek for the baptism of the Holy Spirit anymore. We were already baptized long ago. What we need to do now is to drink of this Spirit every day. The baptism is once for all, but the drinking is continuous and daily. Our salvation through baptism is also once for all. But after being baptized, we still need to drink of this Spirit every day.
According to our experience, to call on the name of the Lord is to drink of this Spirit. But there is a difference between calling and praying. In Romans 10:13, Paul did not say that whoever prays to the Lord shall be saved. Rather, he said that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The word “call upon” in Greek is epikaleo. It means to call out aloud. Although God is omnipotent and omnipresent, He acts according to certain laws. A seed will surely not grow if it is placed on a table, but it will surely grow when it is put into the soil. This is a law. In order for man to be saved, he has to act according to God’s law, which is to believe in the heart, to confess with the mouth, and to call on the name of the Lord. We have to believe in our heart and call with our mouth. When we believe in our heart and call with our mouth, we will be saved. We should not wait until calamities arise before we call on the Lord. Instead, we should learn to call on the Lord every day in our daily life. This kind of calling on the name of the Lord is the drinking of the Spirit. By drinking this Spirit, by our calling on the name of the Lord, we become the temple for Him as the Spirit to dwell in and are joined to Him as the Spirit to become one spirit, that He may become wisdom to us from God: power, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and everything. This is the Christ spoken of in the book of 1 Corinthians.
Item number four says that with this all-inclusive Spirit He anoints His believers, sealing them and giving them this Spirit within them as the pledge of the enjoyment of God as their inheritance. Now this Spirit is both anointing and sealing us within, and as a result, we have this Spirit as the pledge. This is a proof to us that God is our portion. The anointing ointment is Christ. The seal is Christ. The pledge is also Christ. Item number four goes on to say that this Spirit also becomes the ink with which the all-inclusive Christ is written into us. The ink here refers to the essence and element of God. We write with ink. What is written are the letters, while the essence of the letters is the ink. The Spirit that dwells in us is writing continuously. The letters written are Christ, but the essence of the letters is the Spirit. The more this Spirit writes, the more ink we will have within. The more ink we have, the clearer the letters will become. The more this Spirit writes within us, the more Spirit we will have within, and the more Christ will be expressed.
As the all-inclusive Lord in resurrection who is the all-inclusive Spirit, He releases us from the bondage of law and ordinances, that we, with unveiled face, beholding His glory, may be transformed into His image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. In this way we can enjoy the riches of the Triune God—the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This is the Christ in 2 Corinthians.